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Opinion
It was another action-packed weekend of football, with 25 goals scored across the six matches. There was a limp Big Blue, late drama and some unfortunate events, too.
Here are your A-League Round 14 talking points.
There were awful scenes in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon when Adelaide United midfielder Juande went down after a collision with Florin Berenguer. But what came next was perplexing: the real-time discovery that there was no ambulance at AAMI Park.
We don’t have 120-kilogram forwards crashing into each other all night long, but football is still a contact sport, and these professional athletes deserve better than a 15-minute wait in the middle of the pitch. What I found even more staggering is the PFA, the body whose sole purpose is to protect the rights of the players, approved this change back in 2018. It beggars belief.
Even if it means paying the ambos triple time, this cannot happen again. In a season of farcical events, this is another shameful moment for the rudderless leadership of the APL.
Get well soon, Juande.
The box office Jets got the scoring spree started in Newcastle with a 4-0 rout of Brisbane Roar. Then on Saturday, from a speedway in Palmerston North to the palm tree-lined Industree Group Stadium, we saw three 2-2 stalemates. And finally on Sunday, Melbourne City and Adelaide produced a six-goal affair to bookend the round.
Jamie Maclaren of Melbourne City celebrates a goal. (Photo by Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty Images)
Warren Moon obviously wasn’t thrilled, and high-scoring affairs are rarely what coaches want to see but it’s always great entertainment for fans and neutrals.
It was a fantastic atmosphere in Gosford for the clash between Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers, which, despite some brutish behaviour from fans in the away bay, provided an energetic backdrop for probably the game of the round.
A few days ago, the ABC published a piece that outlined in gory detail how the league has failed to capitalise on the national team’s success in Qatar. But with an 8565-strong crowd and the quality of football on show, I’m not concerned that anyone in attendance walked away and said to their mate, “That was crap. I’m not coming back for more.”
If we can get more games of that standard, more goals, more excitement, maybe, just maybe, the crowds will return.
Many pre-season predictions, including my own, had the newly nomadic Perth Glory rock bottom of the A-League ladder in 2022-23. Well, the season is still far from over, but it’s fair to say Ruben Zadkovich has got his side well and truly exceeding even the most positive expectations.
Taking the reins of a Glory outfit that managed only a pitiful four wins in 2021-22, Zadkovich certainly had his work cut out for him. Kicked out of HBF Park, their regular home ground, Perth had little choice but to play out of Macedonia Park, at best an NPL-level ground.
A rookie coach, a very dicey squad a barely acceptable stadium: things were not looking too bright over in the wild west. Let’s face it: they had been written off by everyone.
But 14 rounds into the campaign, they’ve already eclipsed last season’s win total and are just a whisker outside the finals places. Perth might falter and miss the finals by 15 points, but something tells me they’ll be in contention until the end of the season.
Finally this week to the A-League Women competition, where idiotic scheduling led to two Western United players suffering from heatstroke under the Canberra summer sun.
Admittedly, I don’t watch the A-League Women, but I’m pretty sure players suffering heatstroke isn’t normal. It’s only a matter of time until we see this – or worse – over in the men’s competition. And Canberra United’s 5-0 hammering at the hands of Western United was played in the nation’s capital, not Darwin or far north Queensland.
This tweet was debunked on Sunday, but I’m not sure the lack of hospitalisations changes the equation at all.
In the Harbour City, John Aloisi and new Macarthur boss Mile Sterjovski echoed the sentiment after the 2-2 draw at Campbelltown Stadium.
“It’s ridiculous we have to play in this heat,” Aloisi said.
“It’s hard work for the players and there’s the recovery factor. You want to see a good football game, but it’s unfair on the players and the supporters. It doesn’t invite a high-intensity game, it doesn’t invite you to press. You’re hoping players can get through a game and it’s hard to play your style when it’s like that.”
Sterjovski added: “We want to play an attractive style of football… we would prefer later kick-offs.”
I feel like a broken record, but something has got to change. Fans, media, players, coaches – everyone is sick of this foolishness. Let’s see whether the PFA or the APL have anything to say on this, because up till now it has been radio silence from the powers that be.
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